"You said we weren't going to hurt anybody, Jack!" said Jimmy Buckley as he pulled the car at top speed onto the highway. "And then you went ahead and shot that old man right in the chest! He might be dead for all we know by now, and you've got us involved in a murder rap!"
"Well, we had to get out of there, didn't we?" growled Jack Watson in reply from the backseat of the speeding automobile. "That old man was trying to be a hero, jumping on me like that. from behind. I don't take that from anybody. Anyway, what are you beefing about? We got the money, didn't we?" The heavy-set man patted the canvas bank bag that sat next to him on the car seat. "There must be at least thirty thousand in here, enough to get us all to Canada and set us up for quite a while."
The third man in the car spoke now from the side of the front seat. "I wasn't counting on actually shooting somebody, Jack. Those police are just going to be crawling everywhere now. They'll have the stick-up on the six o'clock news and before we know it we won't be able to move an inch without being recognized!"
"Don't worry," said Jack gruffly. "Just keep within the speed limit! We'll hole up somewhere for a while. And then if you want to we can split up!"
This wasn't the way Jimmy Buckley and Steve Torrance had planned it to be. They had planned to use their hands hidden in their coat pockets to rob the bank, not actually use any guns. But this Jack Watson had surprised them by whipping out a real revolver during the course of their holdup of the Lawrenceville Bank, and then he had shot the defenseless old man in the chest! Now both of them were sorry they had ever met Jack Watson. It had been his idea in the first place to stick up the place. They had all been to prison; they all knew the score. Broke and down-hearted, they had met Jack in a bar last night, and somehow they, had drunkenly evolved this plan to raise some ready cash, escape to Canada, and start a new life. Now it all seemed like a hopeless mess.
Now it seemed to Jimmy and Steve that Jack was taking over the whole operation. Jack was studying the road map now, and then he gave what sounded like orders: "Okay, turn off on the road that goes up the mountain, then we'll work our way down those back roads to the border highway."
"What good is that going to do us?" asked Jimmy Buckley.
"The pigs are going to set up a.; roadblock on this highway! We'll double back later better yet we'll stay in one of these little towns for a couple of days. They'd never look for us to hole up in the mountains…"
"Where…?" Steve asked. "They'll check the motels and rental cabins…"
"Well, we'll just pick out a place and take it over!" Jack explained.
There was really nothing for Jimmy and Steve to say now: Jack had a gun, and it was obvious that he didn't mind using it. They didn't want him to start feeling like they were going to give him any trouble now. Jimmy took the turn that he had been ordered to take, keeping the car under the speed limit carefully so as to avoid the attention of any police cars. He didn't know the area, and it seemed that they drove for hours. Still he waited almost fatalistically. for Jack Watson's next directions.